Nowadays, in many electronic and customer devices, imaging techniques are used in order to provide information or multimedia entertainment. In order to ensure a high quality reproduction of transmitted image information noise reduction methods are commonly in use. Conventional techniques encounter motion artifact problem, in particular in the low contrast image areas. In those areas, the algorithms can not differentiate between the desired image contents and the noise disturbance. As a result, motion artifact is caused by a temporal noise reduction filter. The higher the noise level, the more severe the problem encountered by the conventional techniques.
Besides the motion artifact, it can also pose a challenge how to keep the natural impression of the images in question.
It is an object of the invention to avoid such problems.
Further details of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.